How to lower your cable bill to $8 per month

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) -- If your cable bill is anywhere close to $80 per month, there's a way to lower it to $8. Since I tackled this subject a year ago, I've heard from many of you who've come onboard with great success.

While this Ways 2 Save isn't for everyone or the most demanding viewers, I have successfully lowered my bill from the previous $100 per month I was paying.

Considering I was only watching eight of the channels in my provider package, almost three years ago I made the decision to go Roku.

It's a beautiful little HD streaming box that allows you to watch most of your favorite TV and movie content on demand.

Roku provides free access to hundreds of channels via its new and improved interface. Some of my favorites include Crackle, a free movie service, NBC News, Wall Street Journal Live, CNBC and CNET. If you're already an Amazon Prime member or Netflix subscriber, you can also watch all of that content in its HD glory on your TV via Roku. You can also pause, skip and return to most content on your Roku at any time. Hulu Plus is your key to the rest of that great primetime content with significantly fewer commercials than you'd see on traditional television.

So what are the other savings?

Most importantly, you're not paying to rent your box (like you'd be paying with a cable or satellite provider). You can also watch as many movies or TV shows on demand as you want (with a Hulu Plus subscription or Netflix) without any contracts or package price increases.

What are the drawbacks?

If you watch HBO or premium cable / satellite content, this might not be for you. If you have dial-up internet, you can't use Roku and in most cases you'll be getting your primetime programming a day after everyone else via Hulu.

Why Roku over Apple TV?

Aside from the fact Roku is half the price, it's always been ahead of Apple TV. Roku was 1080p on its higher-end models almost two years before this was offered by Apple TV. Roku also had Hulu Plus access way before Apple TV, has more free content and is constantly being improved. If you're set on using a device to stream content from your iPad or iTunes collection, Apple TV is the way to go.

What do you need?

Other than the coupons I just passed along and an HDMI cable, you need a high-speed internet connection to power Roku. In all my tests, DSL Speeds of at least 5.0 Mbps are required.